a grim smile on her face. “Yes, that’s his plan. To take over this world, and to enslave humanity—Cryptos included—for work and for food.”
I started to say You have to be kidding me, but the words died on my lips. She wasn’t kidding. Typhon saw the world as one big hors d’oeuvres platter for the Dragonni. The old Twilight Zone episode—“How to Serve Man”—came to mind and I cringed.
“So, throw the world into panic, and when we’re steeped in chaos, come in and take control?” Herne asked.
Ashera nodded. “Yes, that’s about right.”
“Question: If Typhon is so powerful, why’s he hanging out in the astral realm right now?” Yutani asked.
“That I can also answer. Thousands of years in stasis has weakened him. He needs to regain his strength. Until then, he’s vulnerable. That was another thing I wanted to tell you. Herne, if the gods go up against Typhon soon, they may be able to defeat him. Typhon is a Titan, yes, but if you can weaken him even further, perhaps you can find a way to permanently disable him. The Titans can’t be killed, but they can be hurt. The Celestial Wanderers and the Mountain Dreamers will do everything they can to help you.” Ashera leaned forward. “We would like to ask you to find Echidna. If you can find the Mother of Dragons, she will stand with us. She alone, of all the dragons, has the same strength as Typhon. At least when she vanished she did.”
Find the Mother of Dragons? I blinked. “How are we to find her, if her children don’t even know where she went?”
“You have the power of the internet. You have the power of worldwide communication at your fingertips. We can tell you everything we know about her, and maybe you can find out what happened to her.” Ashera opened her purse and pulled out a thumb drive. “This has everything we have been able to dredge out of our memories, and from the LoreKeepers, who are our oral historians.”
Herne looked at the drive, then slowly picked it up. “We’ll do what he can.” He handed it to Yutani. “You and Talia, get started on this. Meanwhile, Viktor, contact our informants and set them in search of Pandora, but warn them to hang back, avoid catching her notice, and to be careful. Pay them overtime and stress the need for secrecy.”
“What should I do?” I asked.
“Warn Raven. Tell her what’s going on. If she takes on any cases, she needs to verify who’s actually offering her the job. Also, tell Kipa, but no one else. That way, she won’t just think we’re being overprotective.”
“Will do.” I leaned my elbows on the table. “Ashera, what’s the name of the dragon network you guys have formed? What should we call you? Just referring to the ‘Dragonni’ relates to all the dragons, and we can’t just say ‘the good dragons’…that sounds ridiculous.”
Ashera laughed, her voice musical. “We call ourselves the Spiral Web. The dagoids are such beautiful webweavers and they work as a hive mind, which is what we’re trying to do—weave a web to trap Typhon as we work together.”
“What’s a dagoid?” Angel asked.
“In the Forgotten Kingdom—the kingdom of the Dragonni that exists beyond the mists, on the other side of the astral realm, in another physical world much like this one—there are spiders that are the most beautiful creatures you’ve ever seen. They have eight legs, like spiders here, and an exoskeleton, but they also have an internal skeleton, and they grow to about three feet in diameter. They’re golden and white, with black tiger markings, and while they are poisonous, they’re also intelligent, so they can be reasoned with. Sometimes. They live in the woods surrounding Miareta—the city of the Dragonni.”
Visions of a vast city rose in my mind, and I wondered, did the dragons live there in their natural form, or in their shifter form? “If you don’t have your queen, who rules?”
“A council—the Star Dragonni. They’re descended from the Celestial Wanderers but somewhat different. They evolved into…think of a hologram in your world, but give it intelligence and vision and the ability to move about.”
“Like a spirit?” Angel asked.
“Not exactly. The Star Dragonni exist between worlds, like ghosts, but they aren’t just spirits. They’re pure energy. They make up our Council. There are six of them, along with one dragon each from the Celestial Wanderers, the Mountain Dreamers, and the Luminous Warriors. Which means, the Luminous Warriors are almost always overruled when